Bengals Booth Podcast: Wish Upon A Star

wide receiver Jamar Chase. You'll hear from his high school coach back home in New Orleans, the voice of the LSU Tigers, NFL Draft expert Daniel Jeremiah, and Sam Munson from Pro Football Focus, who has Chase ranked as the best wide receiver in the last two NFL drafts, and we know how good last year's class was. The Bengals

Booth Podcast is presented by Bud Light. Seltzer Refreshed the Game, and here's a quick reminder that you can have the latest edition of this podcast delivered right to your phone, tablet, or computer by subscribing on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or pod Bean. It's the greatest thing since Mick Cronan taking UCLA to the Final four. Mick has been my friend for roughly twenty years as the Bearcat's radio announcer.

During his thirteen years as Cincinnati's head coach. We celebrated memorable wins together, shared a ton of laughs, enjoyed great meals, and traded parenting tips. Since my son Sam and his daughter Sammy were born about five months apart. I am thrilled that Mick is getting praise from coast to coast for the incredible job he's done with this UCLA team and is finally being recognized as one of the top

coaches in college basketball. Furthermore, I couldn't be happier for his dad, hep, his right hand man Darren Savino, and all of the UCLA folks with Cincinnati ties. You know the old saying good things happen to good people. Well, Mick Cronan is good people, and mark my words, this is his first trip to the Final Four and it won't be his only. Now time to turn our attention

to twenty one year old Jamar Anthony Chase. Jamar attended Archbishop Rummel High School in Metory, Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans, and played for a coaching icon named Jay Roth, who led the school to twelve league championships in his twenty four years as head coach. Jay, do you remember when you first became aware of Jamar and what your

initial impressions of him were. Yes, I do his first game as a sophomore, he said a school record with four touchdown receptions over a two hundred yards receiving as his first game as a receiver, and I knew we had some special It sure sounds that way. Did you

adjust your style of play to take advantage of his ability? Yes, Going into his junior year, we went to a spread offense, a no huddle spread offense after what I saw he did as a sophomore, and it's like, you know, seeing that you have a thousand and two thousand yard running back, saw that we had a receiver there was one of the best athletes has ever come to the school, and we literally changed our offense. Yes, what was he like

to coach? He was like every other young man, except he was a star in his own right, but a humble star. He never once knocked on the throwing the coach and one more touches, or never had dad come in and complain about anything. I mean, he was all the receiving records at Rummel, but he's just a team player. I mean he I mean one catch and he was blocking his butt off whatever we needed he did. He was just a pleasure to be around. And you know, in this day and age of athletes being where they

concentrate on one sport, Jamar came into Rommo. He played football, basketball, and the state champion track you know, long jump, triple jump guy. So I mean he was, he was. He's a true athlete. We're talking to Jay Roth, who was Jamar Chase's high school coach. What do you consider his best trait to be his strong hands and his physical Actually, he's just a physical strong weight room and strong hands. I mean he could just grab a football and latch

onto it. He could take somebody and block him and just barry him in the ground if he wanted to. And you know, people had trouble pressing him at a line of scrimmage because he was just so quick and so strong, and he at receiving speed. You know, I never saw him get caught. People always might have said, you know, he's not a four to two four three guy. Well that's fine, but the nobody ever caught him more. His days at Romo n L. Shoe was recruiting insane. Yes,

I mean, you know, he committed. Poor guy he was committed to maybe two or three schools. You know, he started as a junior and he was Kansas and you know Florida, and Florida had a coach and change. You know, Auburn quartered him hard and then you know, Ella Shoe got their man in the end. We're talking to Jay Roth, who coached Jamar Chase in high school. I know you coached him great players there. He won multiple state titles. I think former Bengal Sephan Carter was one of your

former players. Where does Jamar rank among the great guys that you coached. He's in the top two, top two or three. We had Kevin Steltz was a Krik Stelts was an All American Lashoo third round draft to get the Bears. And you know, Jamar is going to go down as the greatest, to be honest, because he's being top five, top seven picks in the NFL draft. You know, Bulting, the Cough Award winner, So he's gonna be He'll be

up there. He'll be the greatest. I'll say that. I'm sure you watched a lot of the Joe Burrow to Jamar Chase connection a couple of years ago at LSU. What did you think when you watch those two play. Well, he had a guy at quarterback that knew how to get rid of the football and knew he was thrown too. And I heard he's just a fantastic teammate and the receivers just loved being in the game with him because everybody had to pay attention. You didn't know who was

getting the ball. You know, Joe was going to throw it to the person who was open as the person and he just didn't have favorites. So watching them execute and had that great year at LSU was a pleasure. Obviously a lot of Bengals fans are intrigued by the notion of reuniting those two at the NFL level. Did you see any sort of special connection when you watch

them play. I just saw two guys that were NFL ready, to be honest with which I mean, that's what I saw, which is the offensive numbers they put up there year at Las Shoe to Alabama's last team last year, which is a phenomenal for a college football team, And that's what I saw. Guys, You're just gonna be on the same page at all times. How do you think Jamar will adjust to NFL life, not only on the field, but off it. To be honest, I think the year offer does just me my opinion. I think the year

off he took has prepared him. You know, he's been away from home, he's been training as a professional. You know, he's been training for the NFL Draft. So I think the year offers prepared him and giving him tom to get rights to his NFL life he's about to take on. Do you have a favorite memory, a favorite game, anything else that specifically comes to mind when you think of the time you spend coaching him. Well, probably his last year he played his senior year. It was a playoff

game against Bird High School Street Port Louisiana. He caught four touchdown passes and he hurt his knee and we went to the semifinals. He gotta beat fourteen seven, knowing that if we probably would have had you more healthy, we would probably advanced the state championship in Hotel what would have happen? But he was injured the fourth quarter. But we actually used him one I've ever used. We put him at a wildcat. He scored a touchdown running

the ball. So it's like it took it took me three years to realize, you know what, you better put the ball in his guy's hand as much as you can. And in that game he got hurt and he wasn't there for the state state semifinal game. So with the trade that was made last week with the forty nine ers moving up to the third pick in the draft, it looks like the top three picks are going to be quarterbacks. Atlanta goes forth, the Bengals go fifth. If Jamar Chase is there at number five, what would you

advise Cincinnati to do. I'd advise anybody to take him off. Talking about the number one draft, to really take a first five days of quarterback, take Jamar. That's what I'm saying. From Rummel High School, it was on to LSU, where Chase's two seasons in Baton Rouge were also Joe burrows

two seasons with the Tigers. As a true freshman, Jamar had modest stats twenty three catches, including three for touchdowns, but as a sophomore he had one of the best seasons in college football history with eighty four catches for one thousand, seven hundred eighty yards. That's more than twenty one yards per catch and Chase hauled in twenty of Joe burrows sixty touchdown passes in the National Championship win

over Clemson. Jamar had nine grabs for two hundred twenty one yards and a pair of touchdowns in what turned out to be his final college game, as Chase elected to opt out last season due to COVID nineteen and began preparing for the NFL Draft. This week, I spoke to the radio voice of the LSU Tigers, Chris Blair. Yes, our timing is perfect. We are speaking a few hours after Jamar Chase wowed the scouts at his pro day today, particularly by running a four point three eight forty yard dash.

What's the reaction in Baton Rouge to what Jamar did this morning? Well, number one, nobody seems to be surprised, an at number two, it's just boil boy. What could he have done had he decided to play for the Bengal Tigers of LSU this past ball, of course, opting out for his junior campaign. But you know, he's a favorite son of Louisiana, and of course what he was a part of in twenty nineteen will always etch his name very close and very fun by Tiger fans so

and impressive showing. But again, I guess the first takeaway is you're you're excited he comes out performs that way in front of the scouts, and again I think the biggest takeaway is nobody's surprised at all. They expected him to show up and show up well, Chris, you were behind the mic two years ago for Joe Burrows Heisman Trophy season and that also saw Jamar Chase when the Bullin Nikoff Award is the nation's best wide receiver. What's top of mind when you think about that Burrow to

Chase connection a couple of years ago. Well, you know, it's interesting Dan that you know, you guys, we're getting together and talking again this year. Last year prior to that, we were talking about Joe Burrow so far on one for one with fingers Fan so good. But you can feel that way when you're talking about Joe Burrow and then following it up with Jamar Chase. Those two were

certainly lined up together. You know. It's one of the things that Joe talked about going into that twenty nineteen season was again arriving in twenty eighteen is the transfer quarterback he went immediately to his skilled players on offense along with his offensive line, and they had to bond. And the receiving group in twenty nineteen, which Jamar was a part of, and Joe Burrow, they just seemed to be almost using telepathy. They were always where they needed

to be ran Chris Browse. Jamar was certainly a very good route runner, but when plays would break down and Joe would be able to an extended play and move the pocket, it was justin Jefferson and Jamar Chase who who just knew where to be, knew where to find the crease and and Joe knew where to go with the football, and those guys more times than not we're there. So the relationship, I know a lot of people have been having fun on social media, but Joe really pulling

to the Bengals to bring Jamar Chase. It's not only because I think they're very good friends. I think it's because he understands the type of weaponry that Jamar Chase would have add, not only to Cincinnati but really to any team. He's just that type of player and his background and his work at the show, the numbers bear out. I mean, that's that is just who he is. We are talking to the voice of the LSU Tigers, Chris Blair.

Those numbers speak for themselves, but what can you tell us about Jamar as a person, a teammate, a leader, etc.

You know, it's it's interesting. Just a couple of weeks ago, obviously, the spring football getting underway here at LSU, the receiving core room already talking about their plans for the summer of ten thousand passes and Jamar Chase and that's one of the traditions, very new traditions at LSU, and it was created by Jamar Chase along with help from Terrace Marshall, who will also be going into the draft this year at Justin Jefferson, who, by my humble opinion, was robbed

a Rookie of the Year from Minnesota last season. But those three guys got together in the time they could work just individually and got out the jugs gun and they up the velocity on the footballs and they took ten thousand passes over the course of the summer. And you know, it was an attempt to make sure that if the ball was within grass, they had a good

chance of hauling it in. And when you look at how that translated number one to Joe Burrows accuracy number two to the number of catches and touchdowns and yards that Jamar Chase had along with Justin Jefferson and Terrorist Marshall, it kind of set the bar now for LSU receivers.

So I think when you talk about looking at him coming out of high school one of the top prospects in the state of Louisiana a couple of years ago, rated a four star prospect, his work ethic took him from being a four star, which again is very very good to be in the top of the class and a bullet Nikoff winner. So it's a lot in the same conversation you and I had about Joe Burrow, it's his approach to the game and the preparation of the game has been pro l really since twenty eighteen, and

certainly he ramped that up in twenty nineteen. But you know, he kind of was the architect of the Summer of ten thousand passes. And you know when LSU's coaching staff and the other younger receivers who were coming up in the program, they look at how that type of dedication, not with the coaches, not with the staff, all on their own time led to a phenomenal year as far as offense and receiving offense in twenty nine. So, you know, ten years from now, when they're talking about the Summer

of ten thousand passes, everybody can think Jamar Chase. He's kind of the father of that. That is awesome, the Summer of ten thousand passes. It's like Malcolm Gladwell's ten thousand hours, but ten thousand passes instead. Chris, do you have a favorite Jamar Chase moment and or story anything along those lines. Yeah, I think it was. It was

coming off the Old Miss game. You know, several teams, you know, once we got about mid season in twenty nineteen, they spent the entire week the opponent of that is trying to figure out, Okay, which poison are we going to take away? And more times than not, it was Jamar Chase. And I had a chance to talk with him do a couple of interviews throughout the season, and I asked him following the Old Miss game where he didn't have a great game, it's because they really put

bracket coverage on him for the entire game. They just said, we're going to take Jamar Chase away, and nobody was more thrilled for the performance that both just Jefferson had in single coverage. Also, Marshall had a pretty big game in the slot, and then Clyde Edwards E. Lair was able to really pick up some solid running yards that really allowed LSU to come out on top in Oxford

on that Saturday. And when I was talking about Jamar Chase and talking to him, I was asking him about what it's like when you know a team's gonna try to take you away, and he really didn't even go into that. He talked about how everybody gets a chance to eat on this LSU team and they're so talented that he just sat back and laughed that they were going to put all this emphasis on him and LSU still was going to eat them up, rack up a

bunch of yards and go on to victory. And I'll never forget after we were done, I told you, mar I said, you know what, that's a very I'm impressed. That's a very mature way of looking at things, because at that point of the season, he already was on the bullet Nic coof list, and so was Justin Jefferson. So for him to be able to say, hey, we knew we were gonna win because my guys are going to pick up the slack and if they get bracket coverage next week, then it's my time to step up.

And he certainly did when that would have happened. So I was just impressed with his maturity at that age with so much of the spotlight on him. But yet he knew this is a team effort, and we got our eyes on going undefeated at winning the National Fitle, and anything less than that wasn't going to be satisfactories. We are talking about Jamar Chase with the Voice of

the Tigers, Chris Blair. This is a podcast about Chase, but let's talk briefly about Terris Marshall because he also ran a four three eight forty this Pro Day on Wednesday. He's six three. How good of an NFL prospect? Is Terris Marshall an excellent prospect? You know? In twenty nineteen he was injured and missed I think three and a half games to start the season, and he was well

on his way again. Jamar Chase would go on to be second in sec receiving yards in a season at second in touchdowns and at the beginning of the twenty nineteen season, it looked like Terris Marshall he had not scored a touchdown in twenty eight team. He got his first career touchdown in the first game against Georgia Southern in twenty nineteen, and then for the next two games became a touchdown machine. And then when he returned and was healthy again, he was certainly one of the focuses

of every defensive coordinator. Is okay, which guy we take away? And what do we do if we have to believe

Terris Marshall on an island? And you know, it's interesting in that twenty nineteen season, justin Jefferson was kind of pegged as a slot receiver, which I remember talking to Joe Brady who's now at the Panthers, talking to stevens Minger, who was the offensive coordinator at LSU, and they all laughed and they said, we could put Marshall on the slot, we could put Chase in the slot, we could move

each of them to the outside. They just had that type of skill set and Marshall with his size, And again earlier today at Pro Day, just watching those numbers from carry Vincent from Jamar Chase from Terris Marshall. All of those sub four numbers was really incredible to see when you look at the size and I go back to the Summer of ten thousand passes because Marshall was a part of that, and he's got such good hands.

I have watched Jamar Chase and Terrace Marshall. Everybody in the stadium knows they need two yards and they're going to go for the quick slant and they'll have a linebacker hanging off of him, a corner will try to cheat up and jump the lane, and they have such strong hands that if the pass is anywhere near their body, they pull it in and nobody can deflect it. And that's to me what stands out about Marshall's He's got good soft hands to make the catch, but he's got

strong hands once he has the grasp. And again, when you're that big and you've got that type of speed, it's really going to allow teams to put him out there and one on one coverage and stretch the field. So I think he's got an excellent toolkit to have a successful career in the NFL. Chris and Cincinnati, we were obviously heartbroken when Joe Burrow suffered his d injury last season, I'm interested to hear what the reaction was like in Baton Rouge. Oh, it was the same. It

was absolute heartbreak. I mean, you know, considering a kid that grew up in Ohio and means so much to his hometown, it is the same in the short period he's been in Baton Rouge. That's the way everybody feels about him here. I mean, I would love I'm sure Cincinnati has the numbers on where their jerseys were sold going into the twenty twenty season, and I guarantee, if there's a giant spike when you look in Louisiana, were Joe Burrow Cincinnati jerseys all over the place here? People

were watching. I dare I say, if the Saints and the Bengals were playing at the same time on TV, you had you had a lot of homes that were watching Cincinnati and they would catch up with New Orleans later because they wanted to watch Joe Burrow play. So when he went down, it was devastating. But I remember talking to a number of people, in fact, my neighbors, who said, you know, the work ethic he's shown, he's

gonna be back. He's gonna be stronger, he's gonna be better, he's gonna be smarter, having gone just through that short stint of the NFL, and so to see those videos of him getting back working out, had a chance to see him in Indianapolis covering the NCAA tournament a week before last. He looks good, he looks excited. So everybody's going to be right back on the Bengals training again when football comes around this vault. All right, final question

for the voice of the LSU Tigers, Chris Blair. If you pulled Cincinnati Bengals fans right now on who the team should select number five overall, you'd probably get a pretty even split between Oregon offensive lineman Piney Sewell and Jamar Chase. You are obviously not a neutral party in this debate, But what do you think selecting Jamar and reuniting him with Joe would do for the Bengals. Oh? I think it would be a shot in the arm offensively. I mean, there's no question about it. I mean, knowing

enough about football, no expert by any stretch of the imagination. Also, watching Joe, I can lean a little bit towards you know, peeping up that offensive front to protect Joe back there so he can do and use his skill set. But without question, I think, you know, just in the same way Justin Jefferson, you're talking about a young man who maybe was a three star in a couple of evaluations coming out of high school. Those two remind me of each other and simply the way they attack the game

and prepare for the game. And you look at the natural born talents that Jamar Chase possesses, which again he's a little head of the game than Justin Jefferson. I think he's the type of player whether he's in Cincinnati or wherever he goes, is going to be an impact

player in year number one. So if I'm Cincinnati looking to really boost that offense and add another tool to the weaponry, I think at the end of the day, I probably go ahead and say, maybe we can use other avenues to beep up the offensive line, But to miss and pass on bringing Jamar Chase, who in twenty nineteen was by far the best receiver in college football, I'd go with Jamar Chase. Chris, this is becoming a

fun tradition. I look forward to reaching out next March and quitting you about the Tiger's top prospects next year. No doubt about it. They certainly have a great program here. They get some great talent. All you have to do is watch Sundays in the fall and you'll see tons of former LSU players. So it's been a pleasure. Thanks for having me on again, and best of luck in

twenty twenty one. With jokes. Before we continue with our deep dive look at Jamar Chase, we remind you that the Bengals Booth podcast is presented by Bud Light Seltzer. It's light and refreshing with a hint of fruit flavor. A few weeks ago, I devoted an episode of this podcast to Oregon offensive lineman Pinney sewell, if you haven't listened yet, it's the bad case of loving you. Addition, and as I stated then, interviews from his high school

and college connections weren't likely to include many criticisms. In the final two interviews on this podcast, we get a pair of unbiased opinions. Up First, NFL Network Draft expert Dan Jeremiah, in his most recent list of the top fifty prospects in order, he has Chase rated third behind Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence and Florida tight end Kyle Pitts. For what It's worth, Daniel Jeremiah has sewell ranked twelfth.

I recently took part in a zoom call with Jeremiah where a reporter from Detroit, the team of a seventh overall pick, asked Daniel to identify the top wide receiver in this year's draft. To me, it would be Jamar Chase just because of everything he can do. I think a lot of times when you're watching receivers, you see guys with you, guys that can win with separation and quickness, and you see guys that can win with physicality, you know,

and kind of contested catches. And when you watch him at LSU in twenty nineteen, you see examples of both where he can separate from people off the line of scrimmage, he can separate at the top of his route. He plays big to go up and get the football, and then after the catch, he gives you that strength as a calid break tackle. So he's to me, the best receiver in the draft. I can't imagine he would be there, but man, that would be a home run pick for the Lions if he was, and then I wouldn't have

any issues with the other two either. From Alabama. Man, I think it's kind of a flavor thing with Waddle on Davante Smith. Waddle gives you a little bit more juice, but DeVante Smith plays plenty fast as well. DeVante Smith is a pristine route runner. He's obviously everybody knows, is real thin, but man, he's really long armed. He can

go up and get it as well. I just thought, you know what you get after the catch with some of the shiftiness and then just to home run speed from Waddle is why I ended up with Waddle over Smith. And you know, GPS stuff is gonna be big this year because you know, we haven't had as much verified numbers, and talking to some teams around the league, Waddle had had the fastest GPS of any receiver in the country. So it's not just your eyes aren't receiving you when

you watch him. He's he's freaky fast. In his most recent mock draft, Jeremiah had Chase going number three overall, but that was before Miami traded the pick to San Francisco. Now it looks like the top three picks are likely to be quarterbacks. Atlanta picks fourth and Matt Ryan turns thirty six next month. Will the Falcons also go for a QB if so the Bengals could have their choice of Chase Sewell or any non quarterback in this year's draft.

Our final conversation is with Pro Football Focus analysts Sam Munson, who recently published a detailed profile of Chase for PF. Sam, let's start with the data and then get to your film study of Jamar Chase. What do the PF numbers tell us about his play at LSU and his chances of excelling in the NFL? Yeah, I mean the numbers are as you would expect. That season that he had in twenty nineteen was absolutely incredible just from a raw box score number or standpoint, and it was equally as

impressive whenever you dive further. It was a phenomenal PF grade. He showed some incredible play after the catch, some incredible play at the catch point as well. It was a season every bit as good as it looked just from the role numbers of the various things that PF grades where wide receivers are concerned, is there anything in particular that best projects to the NFL really what you would like to see as a guy getting it done against

NFL competition. I don't know if there's one specific area or subset of play that indicates, you know, greater transition. If you've got guys who a huge percentage of their production come from kind of scheme touches, whether it's screens or those kinds of things, maybe that would give you pause. But I don't know if there's a general subset that

is dramatically more predictive. But I do like to see if a guy has done well against a league competition and guys who are going to be playing in the NFL and that season that Jamar Chase and absolutely qualifies for that. If you actually look at the sequence of cornerbacks that guy played that year, it's stocked full of NFL talent. A bunch of guys that were in the draft last year, Patrick Certan, who's going to be in the draft this year, and like he didn't slow down.

If anything, he beat up on those guys harder, and he beat up on just regular college cornerbacks. We're talking to Sam Hudson from Pro Football Focus. Let's turn to your film study. What were your biggest takeaways from watching all of the Jamar Chase footage that you did, the biggest takeaway really is that there aren't weaknesses. I mean,

he doesn't really have any negatives. And even when you're actively looking for them just to try and nitpick, it's difficult to find anything to have a real problem with. And you know, we're reaching the stilly season of the draft evaluation period where everybody is pulling apart any possible prospect and coming up with reasons to dislike them, and you know you're going to hear that the Jamar Chase can't separator, that he doesn't win with out running, and

I don't think it's true. I think occasionally you're going to find a play where somebody gets his hands on him a little bit too easily, and occasionally you're going to find a play where he doesn't separate the way you would like. But it's not like it's a regular recurrence. It's everybody has flaws. You know, Randy Moss was criticized for taking plays off and in between the plays where he was lighting you up for an adr touchdown. So yeah, like there's some plays on Jamar Chase's tape that are

not phenomenal but the body of work is incredible. The biggest knock on Joe Burrow is a rookie was the lack of deep ball success that he had. How much difference do you think Jamar Chase would make Their connection that year was incredible and really it wasn't even a negative.

Just one of the things you did notice when you were going through Jamar Chase's tape is how many of these passes from Joe Burrow were absolutely just ridiculous, like placed into where they should be, to the point where despite not having great separation on the play, it didn't matter because the ball just landed in his hands in

a way that didn't even require adjusting from Chase. You know, a lot of times you can deal without great separation if the receiver makes a better adjustment at the cash point in the corner instead of gets himself a little half yard of space to make the catch. But Chase wasn't even needed to do that. He was just sticking his hands out and the ball was dropping in them. So it did make part of his evaluation a little bit tricky because Burrow was just dropping in so many incredible,

perfect passes. But now that's a great thing, right, if they have that kind of connection, if that wasn't just a fluke that year, you pair the two of them up again and suddenly you might have a giant jump forward and Burrow's deep production. Or talking to PFF analyst Sam Munson, you've got Jamar ranked as the number one wide receiver in this year's class. How close is it with the other top guys, Davante Smith and Jalen waddle I do think it's very close between Chase and Devon

Day Smith. I think those two guys are one and two for me. The PFF Draft guide actually has wadlefe think still ahead of Davante Smith. I haven't checked the update as of yesterday, but I think it's really close

between Chase and Davante Smith. But Davante Smith has that issue of you know, he plays at one hundred and seventy pounds and tells everybody he's playing at one hundred and seventy pounds, like this is not a guy who's going to come in at twenty pounds of muscle in an NFL weight program and be one hundred and ninety

and you can deal with it. He's going to be playing at one hundred and seventy and believes that the tape speaks for itself for him in that regard, and I think he's right, But that has to be a little bit scary. And in particular, when you have a Jamar Chase in this draft class, you know, you're not left with he's head and shoulders the best receiver in this class. We don't have any choice but to overlook the fact that he's one hundred and seventy pounds because

nobody else comes close. You know, Jamar Chase is right there, They're very very close together. So the fact that you have this little unknown, this little area of being scared of that weight for Davante Smith, I think would make you default to Jamar Chase. You know, pretty much every time the Bengals were able to pick up t Higgins in the second round last year, how deep is the wide receiver pool if they don't use a pick on a wide receiver at number five? Overall? I think it's

a lot like last year. I think it's really deep. I think it's really talented. There's a lot of incredibly good wide receivers in this draft as well, And interestingly, you know, you start thinking about what kind of receiver Cincinnati would like, and given the guys they already have, I think they would like somebody that does bring a slightly different skill set. Now, Jamar Chase is good enough at everything that he's it doesn't matter like he qualifies

across the board. But you know, maybe in the top of the second round, I think there's a lot of wide receivers that are more skewed towards that speed and potential vertical skill set that isn't necessarily there in the

group that right now. So actually the top of the second round is potentially a great place to get one of these wide receivers and concentrate on, you know, somebody like a Pine sul in the first Who are some of the vertical guys that you like that would be available in the second I'm really intrigued by somebody like Rondel Moore, And I think that the classes still are the jury still add on exactly where he's going to go.

You know, a lot of people still have him as a first rounder, a lot of people are a lot of other people are dropping him below the likes of, you know, some of the other wide receivers that are popping up. And but if He's been a very interesting evaluation because he's a very gimmick type of receiver. He didn't really run an NFL rout tree at all in college. Almost everything he did was screens or just ways of

getting the ball in his hands in space. But he has the ability to run that vertical rout tree, particularly from the slot. You know, if you're going to use him in the slot the way the Chiefs use tyreeek Hill and just run him at safeties and terrify defense is because of it. I think he's potentially a much scarier prospect for defense to contend with, and guys like Elijah Moore from All miss who are potentially jumping in

him on some draft boards right now. Months ago, I would have said the vast majority of Bengals fans we're hoping that Pine Suel would be the Bengals pick at number five. Now it seems like it's a pretty even split. Sewel or Chase with a few people is holding out for Kyle Pitts. Where are you right now, a little less than a month away from the draft. I think it's pretty close. I don't know that it's one of those great positions to be in where I don't think

you're wrong either way. You know, if you pick a Pinay Suel or Jamar Chase or even a Kyle Pitts, I don't think you can be criticized for the move. I think either way, you're getting one of the three or four blue chip prospects in this draft that aren't quarterbacks, and I don't think any of them necessarily prohibit you from coming back in the second round and getting a good player as well. There's only one on Kyle Pitts, and I think there's a steper drop off a tight

end than in the other positions. But you know, if you I would default to taking a Pina Sul because I think the gap between him and he's a potentially generational tackle prospect and that term he gets thrown around all the time, but I think he might honestly be that. What he did at nineteen years of age with his size in college was just ridiculous, Like you don't see tackles doing that, So I would grab him. I think the second round is a great place to be for

wider stever help as well. I think he can come back and get a player that will be an impact guy in the second round. And have a great draft that way. Kyle Pitts would be intriguing one because you know whatever about Pena sul being a generational player, like, we have not seen a player like Kyle Pitts hit the NFL maybe ever. I mean, he might be genuinely special in terms of being able to play tight end or x wider receiver both to an extremely high level

and anything in between. I can see a good case to say, look, you're never going to find another Kyle Pitts, so we take this guy and deal with the other positions later on. But it's a smaller need, I think than the other two. For people that are interested in learning more about Jamar Chase. You wrote an awesome scouting report about him based on your film study. I highly recommend it for everybody that's trying to make up their mind between Chase, Sewell or Pitts. The debate will continue,

Sam Moudson, thanks very much, appreciate your time. Thanks for having me. I've now devoted entire episodes of this podcast to Piney Sewell and Jamar Chase. Have you made up your mind or are you hoping for an episode devoted to Kyle Pitts. We'll see. I hope you enjoyed this week's episode of the Bengals Booth Podcast, brought to you by bud Light Seltzer. Refresh the game. If you haven't done so already, please subscribe, and if you have a minute, give it a rating or share a comment that helps

or Bengals fans find this podcast. I'm Dan Horde, and thanks for listening to The Bengals Booth Podcast